Tales of the Storm: Day of Joy
by Lizardbeth J
Summary: Not all days are dark and full of tragedy. Some are full of wonder and joy. - Loki x Sigyn, with Frigga. Future fic.


NOTE: I wrote this as a gift for my beta for her request for Loki/Sigyn being all sappy. Like all the Tales of the Storm ficlets, it's set in the same 'verse as my series: Understanding the Storm. This one though, instead of being backstory, is a future fic. A p_ossible_ future, maybe even a fanfic.

But it's happy, and if you're following along the darkness in "Hail of Shadows" right now, maybe you could use something hopeful and light, too?

.

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If there was one thing Frigga had learned in her long life, it was to live days of joy and miracle to their fullest. Those days did not come as often as they should, and seemed less frequent than days of sadness and tragedy.

But they came. And today was one she could never have imagined during those days of nightmare when she'd thought her son was lost to her forever.

Not only was Loki there, but so was Sigyn, and they were about to make Frigga a grandmother. The healers hovered nearby, but Frigga was delivering the child herself. All seemed well, but the baby would be the highly mixed blood of three races and Loki's genetic faults besides, and there was always a chance something could go wrong.

Loki knew that as well. Throughout Sigyn's whole pregnancy, he had been afraid for her and the baby. It had been a secret fear, not shown often, but glinted in his eyes whenever he looked upon her.

It had been Frigga's main task to keep him from doing something stupid while they waited for the baby. She consoled him that Sigyn suffered no unusual complications, and all scans and magical readings of the child-to-be were normal. Most of the time he accepted her reassurance and managed not to smother Sigyn with overprotective worry, but he still held a deep fear that this new blessing would be cruelly snatched away from him.

Now on this final day, everything he treasured most in all the Nine Realms was in this room. He'd held up better than she'd expected, refusing Thor's invitation to wait with him and keeping to his determination to be there for Sigyn. He'd eased her pain with a skill that suggested he'd been watching Frigga heal more closely than she'd ever thought. Sigyn gripped his hands for hours as her labor intensified, and he'd been solidly supportive, with only a glitter in his eyes that hinted at the panic that would be unleashed if something went wrong.

Frigga smiled up at them both in reassurance from where she knelt on the floor. "Once more, my daughter," Frigga coaxed. "Your son wants to join us."

Sigyn gritted her teeth and clutched Loki's hands, and thirty seconds later it was done.

Frigga held the baby in both palms, one hand cupping his head and the other hand beneath him, to look at him in wonder. He was slick and tiny, but not unusually so. His skin was a pale blue, his ears more pointed than Aesir norm, and his eyes were green like Sigyn's. When she looked into him, to check his aura and his health, those proved merely surface differences. He was well. As he opened his mouth and gave his first affronted cry at being forced out of the warmth into this strange cold place, Frigga smiled.

"There he is. He's quite healthy," she announced. "Perfect, I should say."

Soon the baby was wiped off and given to Sigyn to hold. Frigga let the healers finish up as she washed her hands and watched them. Sigyn held the baby against her chest, staring into his green eyes with a smile that could scarce believe any of it was real.

Loki sat beside her, his eyes full of unshed tears that fell only when he rested his head against hers and finally let go of his fear that something was going to take them away. Sigyn raised her face to kiss him, finding only his hair at first, until he sought her lips in grateful appreciation and love.

He curled one arm around Sigyn's shoulder and stroked the baby's back with one cautious finger. "You did it," he whispered. "He's here and he's so beautiful…"

Frigga's smile widened at the words. Loki would never feel comfortable about his own true form, but at least he carried none of that to his son.

"He's ours, my love," Sigyn murmured. "Others never wanted us, but we want him, we shall keep him, and none shall take him away."

"Never," Loki declared, a dark edge to his oath that promised he would fulfill it, no matter the cost. But the dark faded away a moment later, as the contented smile returned.

"You both have done very well," Frigga said and bent to kiss them, and the baby's head, too. "I am so proud and I love all of you so much. I'll leave you alone now with your new son and tell the rest of the family what joyfulness has been wrought this day."

She started away, but Loki caught her sleeve to tug her back, peeling his eyes from the baby to look up at her. "Thank you."

"For what? Sigyn did all the work," she returned lightly.

But he wanted to be serious. "I mean, you made this possible. Without you - without both of you - I - " he glanced down at the baby and his voice hoarsened, "I would not be a person who could do this. Who deserves this."

Frigga caught his cheek to raise his face back upward to meet her eyes. "You deserve this," she reassured him. "You deserve only good things, my dearest, especially this. There has been so much suffering; it's time for brighter, more hopeful things."

"Time for the flowers to bloom?" Loki suggested, teasing her.

That made Frigga chuckle. "Indeed. Clever child. I anticipate with great relish watching you learn to cope with a clever child of your own."

"Oh, no, I think we are quite doomed," Sigyn joked wearily.

"Blessed, truly. Now, rest, you three. There is nothing more important than to live this moment together. I will be near if you need anything." She kissed Loki's brow, smoothed Sigyn's hair, and could not resist kissing the baby again as well, overwhelmed by the love in her heart for all of them.

At the door, she glanced back. Sigyn's hair was the color of a field of wheat in the light streaming in through the high windows, long and loose on her shoulders, a bright contrast to the raven-black of Loki's. The baby slept cradled against Sigyn's heart under a soft emerald blanket Frigga had woven herself, imbued with as much protection as she could give. Sigyn rested against Loki, wrapped in his arms. Both parents were tired but looked perfectly content to watch their new little son sleep.

Frigga closed the door softly behind her and left them in peace.

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end. :)


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